Simon Ancona, UK’s assistant chief of defence staff, says the success of the Nigerian military in the fight against insurgency has put it on a “positive radar of global assessment index”.

According to Rabe Abubakar, Nigeria’s defence spokesman, Ancona made the expression when he led a delegation of the UK ministry of defence on a courtesy visit to Gabriel Olonisakin, Nigeria’s chief of defence staff.

The UK general commended the military and allied security agencies for their doggedness and sacrifice that have led to the decimation of the sect, and called for sustenance of the onslaught to wipe out insurgency.

He pledged that his country’s armed forces would continue to work closely with its Nigerian counterpart to strengthen capacity.

Ancona explained that the delegation was in Nigeria as a follow-up to variety of regional and global security matters discussed at a peace keeping conference which held in the UK earlier in the year.

He said the visit would further strengthen and improve the harmonious bilateral relationship between the two nations.

Olonisakin expressed profound gratitude to the UK government for all the assistance it has rendered the Nigeria, and solicited stronger tie in intelligence sharing, military hardware, manpower capacity building and training in counter improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and deep penetration detection devices (DPDDs).